


It Takes Two to Tango

by Emanemmy12



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 19:28:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3180428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emanemmy12/pseuds/Emanemmy12
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: high school Root x Shaw fic</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Takes Two to Tango

It had been pathetically easy to get the girl’s in her grade to like her. True, it was boring and dull and she didn’t care for any of them at all, but when Sameen had first arrived to the small Texas town, she’d had a plan. Middle school and the first bit of high school had been relatively boring with everyone thinking that she was weird. Shaw had never gotten lonely, but she wanted to know what it was like on the other side. She had observed it from a distance with intrigue and had calmly informed her mother of the plan. Her mother had merely warned her that Texas might make it difficult for someone who wasn’t white. Shaw had shrugged and said it’d be more of a challenge. Her mother knew about the way that she interacted with the world and had never once been anything but kind and supportive, especially after the death of Shaw’s father. They had been through a lot to come to the level of understanding that her mother had, but it was worth it. 

Now, it was a small school so when she came in as a new kid, all smiles and “Call me Sam”, the clique of popular girls opened ranks to become “more diverse”. With a smile on her face and all of those false kind words, Sameen was easily drawn in the top circle of the school. It was junior year and so it was very rare for someone new to arrive. There were other kids, but Sameen didn’t pay attention to them except to remember their names. With only 30 kids in her grade it would have been rude not too. It was a different experience to be in a small rural school from the large city school she’d been a part of. Everyone was nice to each other on the outside here, but the circle of who you could hang out with were more firmly drawn. After the first few weeks, Shaw was invited over to Allison’s house after school and instructed on which people were ok and who wasn’t. 

”I don’t want it to seem like we are bullying anyone. That isn’t ok,” she had started with. “But there are just a few people that aren’t the types that you want to hang out with. They are just..”

”Weird,” supplied Courtney. “They are weird.”

”Yeah, exactly.” Allison smiled and continued. “But there are some that are really just dangerous. Like the Groves girl. Her name is Sam too. Like she’s super smart, but her friend like went missing when we were in middle school and she just got weirder. We think she might be a gay.” 

Rebecca nodded enthusiastically at that. “She totally looked at me in gym freshman year.”

Sameen raised an eyebrow. “She’s my lab partner in chem. She didn’t seem too bad.” In fact she was the only person in the class who managed to understand what was going on and Shaw was grateful she didn’t have to explain everything for a second time. 

“Trust me. I mean it’s a shame about her. You’ll just have to deal with it I suppose. This year there are a lot of outside projects. But if you get her to do the work then you’ll have an A.” Courtney nodded in agreement at the words Allison spoke. Shaw nodded in agreement and just smiled. “But she’s just not worth associating with.” Part of her wondered just why this other Sam was taboo and she planned to figure it out. The reasons that the gaggle of other women said just didn’t make sense to her. She’d learnt enough from these girls. It was time that she started going her own way anyways. Shaw wasn’t dumb enough to want to keep up appearances like this forever. That would lead to her making mistakes and as much as she wanted to say that she mastered being popular, it was honestly more boring than being alone. 

The next week she, Samantha, and the rest of her chemistry class were assigned a project that required group work outside of school. Sameen was pleased. This would mean the beginning of her plan to figure out just what had happened to this girl and the blonde trio. She turned to Root and gave her a smile. People seemed to be more approachable if you smiled at them. “So when’s a good time for us to work on this for you?” she asked. “I’m pretty free on the days where I don’t have track.” 

Sam blinked, surprised. “Us?” she repeated dully. “I know you are probably just good at this stuff as me, but I thought you might have not taken it seriously.” 

Shaw shrugged. “Did you think I’d make you do it alone?” The other young woman pursed her lips and Sameen let out a chuckle to ease the tension. “I just want to make sure you don’t screw it up. I’m trying to get a perfect GPA here.”

”Fine. Thursday after school?” The reply came out forced, as if Sam couldn’t believe that she was agreeing to this at all. Sameen nodded and smiled. She was at least trying to start this off on the right foot. Before this their only conversation had been giving the other one mostly polite instructions about lab procedure. “We are going to your house. You have a car?”

”Yup.”

”Good. You are driving me too. I refuse to take the bus.” 

Sameen did a mock bow. “Be my guest. I’ll even drive you home after.” Samantha glared at her like Shaw had just punched her in the face. After a moment, the bell rang and Sam grabbed her bag, moving quickly away from Shaw. The interaction was strange, but Shaw wasn’t too put off. Her actual personality was much more terse so she couldn’t really hold it against someone else. This odd girl was more interesting than calculus. In her growing interest, Sameen noticed that Samantha was actually in her AP Calc class and her British Literature class too. The girl would typically dress in darker colors and sit in the back. Sameen hadn’t noticed her before because two of her “friends” were in these classes as well. She logged that in the back of her mind and leaned back to listen to the teacher yammer on about something important.

When Thursday finally came about, Sameen was almost anxious about the meeting. She wasn’t actually anxious, that would require fear, but she was overthinking things for certain. Shaw usually prided herself on her keen concentration in class, but today she found it interrupted with thoughts of what would happen if Samantha wouldn’t trust her enough to talk with her. That was the key to getting the story out of her. Eventually the day ended and Shaw waited by the flagpole with annoyance bubbling below the surface as she chatted about mundane things with the clique. You’d think that for someone who insisted that she drive her that Samantha would be on time. Shaw waited though. She waved good bye to the group she was standing with and gave a huff. It seemed that for now she was alone. The smile fell from her face and Shaw glared at a rock. Her lab partner wasn’t there to make a face at so this rock would do. Eventually she blinked and had to give up the staring contest that she had declared. Instead, Sameen kicked it. She had been waiting for this chick for 20 minutes. It went satisfyingly far and landed further along the path. her eyes trailed upwards until she caught sight of something black. They were combat boots, old and worn. Moving her gaze upwards, Sameen took in the black skinny jeans which were torn in several places and black shirt before making eye contact with Samantha. She surged forward, forgetting where she was and what the plan was. Her hand shot out and grabbed the taller girl’s collar and Shaw pulled her in close. “Are you fucking with me?” she growled. “Because if you think you can just order me about like that then you are dead wrong.” 

Sam just smiles at Sameen and reaches up to tug on the arm holding her. “Of course not. Would you mind letting go? I’d hate for your friends to see you getting into a fight. I don’t think they’d mind so much that it was me, but violence is against Jesus.” Shaw tightened her grip and then pushed Sam away who’s only response was to pull her shirt so it didn’t look crumpled. In fact she looked smug. 

“Don’t give me that face,” Shaw said. “We are late.” She didn’t try to put her mask back on. She’d already broken it and Samantha didn’t seem to bothered by it. She turned and picked up her backpack. Sam followed behind and Shaw could just feel the smirk on the back of her head. 

“I knew you weren’t like them,” came from behind Sameen. “There was always something just a little off.”

“Have you been watching me?” Shaw asked coming to a halt in the middle of the empty parking lot. 

Samantha laughed at that question. “Of course, Sameen. You are new here. Everyone is watching you. Some more carefully though. I did think it was suspicious when you instantly aligned yourself with the blonde bombshells. True, they will make you look good, but as the only person who’s ever beaten me in a grade contest, I don’t think you need them to do that.”

“Fine. What are you now then? My rival?” This was far more interesting than she had first thought. Shaw made a note to become more observant. Clearly becoming popular had made her more short sighted than she wanted to be. 

Another laugh was given to her and Shaw glared at the now playful figure before her. “No, not at all. I haven’t decided about you yet, but rivals we won’t be. I fell like that would only impede anything useful.”

“Ok.” Shaw crossed her arms. “Why do they hate you?” If they were talking so candidly then she might as well find out her original objective. Samantha just shrugged at the question and Shaw sighed. “They decided to single you out as someone to avoid, but they never gave any real reason.” 

“Maybe not a real reason that made sense to you. I’ve sure I’ve given them many things to hate. I don’t particularly care though. Shall we?” Samantha pointed to Shaw’s car. 

“Whatever.” Shaw walked forward and unlocked it. She tossed her bag into the back and started it as Samantha slid into the car seat next to her. She looked at the girl wearing all black and made her decision right there. Screw being popular. “So, are you still cool with going to my house? I think besides this project, we have a great deal of things to discuss.”

“I think you are right,” Samantha agreed. “And if we are going to get along, then you can just call me Root.”

Shaw rolled her eyes and maneuvered to the street. “Whatever.”

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't end up going the romantic route, but I do hope you enjoyed this anyways


End file.
